Arcade Mode with Story chars!

[Shady C]

This is what I hope to see in the future.

While I appreciate what current Arcade Mode does, I have to admit that when I first knew that there was a "greater rift" mode, I wanted to do so as my Story char. Current Arcade Mode starts you off super slow, levels are scarce, and it feels like you're stuck playing whatever's good at early levels. The mode has merit, but I'm sure a lot of us want to put our late-game Story chars to the test as well!

 

[Tylerthedragon]

Unfortunately this kind of defeats the point of the arcade mode. The reason arcade mode is there is for you to challenge it and grow up to being at a certain point. Bringing in your story character (especially at a very high level) will just mean the whole challenge of arcade mode is lost because you are sweeping through the first 10 floors.

As someone who 1-shots everything up to flying fortress (and 2 shots most of the enemies) with my story character, I personally wouldn't see much of a challenge in playing Arcade Mode (since I've yet to even make it to Floor 7 on Arcade Mode). The best we can hope for is more content in the arena such as gauntlet II and more superpowered versions of bosses.

 

[Shady C]

I assumed it was implied that this would be a separate version of Arcade Mode, and thus scaled accordingly.

 

[Tylerthedragon]

Eh, it seems like a lot more work than just having you play as a fresh character.

 

[Shady C]

Like...

What? Programming work? Of course. That has nothing to do with the thread. Any major addition obviously requires work. I don't think the devs are looking for "suggestions that are easy to implement so that we can get through the workday".

These forums seem pretty inactive, so that's a shame, but I'd still wager I'm far from the only one who'd wanna see this as a game mode. Perhaps the idea can pop up again sometime in the future, when there's more traffic & whatnot.

 

[KoBeWi]

These forums seem pretty inactive

You didn't see inactive forum if you say this

If you want to test Arcade with higher levels, there exist some tools that might help you (if you know what I mean).

 

[The G-Meister]

Seen as I'm around the forums a lot more than most people, I can say that the forums are currently far more active than they were before the last update, and activity levels feel like they're at a high rather than a low. If you'd posted this a couple weeks ago it would probably have been somewhat forgotten about.

Anyway, the whole point of Arcade mode is that it provides a significantly greater quantity of content for relatively cheap development costs. Just bear that in mind when making suggestions.

The thing I don't like about this idea is that you've already got the potential for taking a max leveled and geared character into the mode. What's bad about that? Well you no longer have much of a sense of progression. You can't get any extra cards, there's no extra gear to be collected and in reality you aren't going to level up much more. And that is what is half the challenge of Arcade - building a build as you go. Granted, people usually pick the same build every time, but how much more interesting can the mode get if you've already got all the best skills, and enemies just have more health to compensate? It feels just as enjoyable as going through the whole game again with /beastmode on.

And even if you refute all of that, I think there have been better suggestions for endgame replayability that don't detract from one of the fundamental principles of Arcade. Own suggested a "replay token" system, that allows you to either make a fresh character and do a challenge, or continue your current one from the start of the game, which also has an added challenge, and you gain tokens for completing them, allowing you to purchase cosmetics. Post is here if you're interested.

 

[Shady C]

Mmm... But obtaining new stuff shouldn't always be the incentive. Endgame replayability is indeed the thing I worry about and aim to aid with the suggestion in my OP. Current Arcade Mode (obviously) is not this, because you're using brand new chars every time.

I think replaying the Story with some miscellaneous added challenges (probably most commonly, simply increased enemy stats/numbers) would just get tedious and daunting really fast. To me, the primary principle of current Arcade is simply testing yourself against a rising difficulty series of rooms, until you can go no further. The sense of character progression is not what I go there for. In fact, as I've kinda said, if anything I would say I kinda dislike it. I don't like starting over all the time. Sense of progression is one thing, but so is sense of completion. And once we finish Story Mode, those characters essentially become dead, thus stealing us players of having any sense of completion at all.

Because - in my eyes - a completed char is supposed to then be tested in the most challenging environments. Not placed upon a shelf as a dust-collecting trophy.

 

[The G-Meister]

The suggestions Own made were a lot more varied than what you mentioned. Would recommend even just a brief glimpse at the article.

Personally I prefer chucking completed characters out and using them as a chance to start afresh. Take the same build and try the game on Hard mode or /beastmode, and possibly go for 100%. Maybe even attempt a new build entirely. I guess we're different in that regard.

Anyway, so after you've defeated the final boss, you'd want some endgame replayable content with which to test your character? The difference with Arcade is it's a test of the player, not the character. A few Arcade pros I know are pros because they can use a random number generator to select their skills and still do pretty well. If Arcade mode was balanced towards your current endgame gear, you'd spend just as much time learning to dodge and weave as someone who's just started the mode afresh, possibly made a bit easier and (a lot slower from the balancing) due to the use of large AOE skills.

So as for another version of Arcade for endgame characters, it's still feels a bit too close to the original mode that you might as well play that. As for an Arcade-inspired replayable dungeon thing, possibly, but the issue I find there is that I wouldn't want it to go on forever or I'd have nothing to work towards. And if it had a finite end, why shouldn't that just be the end of the story?

 

[KoBeWi]

So, I have a possible idea how could this be implemented. Remember when Zhamla talked about his dreams, and how it was similar to Arcade?

How about some Dream House, where someone has invented a way to enter world of mystical dreams, which allow you to struggle against many enemies and challenges from around the world. This could work like Ancient Cave from Lufia, especially Ruins of Lore. You would basically make an Arcade run in Story Mode, but with your story character. You could start from the highest floor you reached (in story mode), or highest area. Things like points and essence would be disabled. When you die, you lose all items you acquired in the dream. You can keep them only if you finish last floor, or find a special item (it was called Providence in Lufia). Alternatively, you could only keep items from special-colored chests, and they would contain stuff you can get only there.